The registry of Internet domain names kept by Network Solutions Inc. hints at the plans of online retailers such as Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Buy.com Inc. and Corona del Mar, Calif.-based Shopping.com.
Buy.com appears to be preparing for a direct attack against its main competitors in the online retailing of books, music and software, having registered the domains 10 percent off amazon.com, 10 percent off reel.com, and 10 percent off egghead.com.
”It’s in our marketing plan, but I really can’t comment on anything other than that,” said Scott Blum, president and chief executive of Buy.com. “We will use those domain names at some time.”
Their sights may be set even higher, having registered 10percentoffwalmart.com.
Troubled Shopping.com, whose stock ticker symbol is “IBUY,” in October registered ibuydrugstore.com.
Pharmaceutical products have been discussed as one of the next big online retailing categories, particularly since the inception last year of Drugstore.com Inc. The Redmond, Wash.-based start-up, which is backed by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and headed by former Microsoft Corp. executive Peter Neupert, has not yet opened for business.
Shopping.com officials did not return telephone calls seeking comment. By the way, Buy.com has also reserved the domain name buycheeseburgers.com. Blum said it was going to be part of a television advertisement but was nixed.
So far, there have been no takers for doyouwantfrieswiththat.com.
— JONATHAN GAW
Tuning In Is in Palm
of Your Hand
Columbia TriStar Interactive is making the Web smaller.
The Sony Pictures Entertainment division is planning several “mobile channels” for users of PalmPilots and hand-held PCs that run Windows CE. The channels, small versions of full-blown Web sites, automatically update each time users synchronize their devices with their regular PC or Macintosh.
”While we see the desktop computer being our primary audience for the near future, we also see a growing audience for consumer Internet devices,” said Tim Chambers, CTI’s director of technology and production in Culver City.
The first two channels, which launched last week, are a weekly newsletter about Sony movies and TV shows and a small version of the Thirteenth Floor (http://www.thethirteenthfloor.com), Sony’s sci-fi site.
A third channel, soon to debut, will provide daily updates from SoapCity (http://www.soapcity.com), which is devoted to soap operas. To subscribe to any of the channels, visit http://www.spe.sony.com/subscribe.html. — KAREN KAPLAN
(c) 1999, Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate
